On Friday 5th August 2016 Inminds human rights group will protest outside the the UK Mission of the International Committee of the Red Cross in London to demand it restore the twice-monthly family visits for Palestinian political prisoners which were cut last month to just once monthly.

A letter will be delivered from Neimeh Shamlawi, the mother of a Palestinian child prisoner Ali Shamlawi, who is being denied the right to visit her son by the ICRC. Three years ago her son Ali, 16 years old at the time, was falsely accused of throwing stones. He was tortured and then sentenced to 15 years imprisonment. She explains how her daughter who has not been able to see her brother for 7 months has finally been given permission by the Israeli occupation to visit her brother this month but due to ICRC cuts she will miss the visit because the dates stipulated in the visitation permit falls outside the new once a month ICRC visit schedule. If the ICRC had maintained their twice-monthly visits then she would have been able to visit her brother but now she may have to wait another 6 months for a permit from the Israeli occupation to visit her brother.

Inminds chair Abbas Ali said "These cuts by the International Committee of the Red Cross steal the valuable few minutes Palestinian families have with their imprisoned loved ones and are tantamount to collaboration with the Israeli occupation in denying Palestinian political prisoners the right to family visits that is enshrined in international law as part of the Fourth Geneva Convention which the ICRC is mandated to uphold. The ICRC should be ashamed on themselves acting as an arm of the occupation."

BILAL KAYED - 52 DAYS ON HUNGER STRIKE

The protest will also demand freedom for the Palestinian hunger striker Bilal Kayed, and an end to administrative detention. Bilal Kayed was imprisoned by the military occupation in 2001, he completed his 14.5 years sentence on 13th June 2016. But instead of being released as scheduled to meet his waiting family at the military checkpoint, he was re-arrested without charge or trial and ordered to indefinitely-renewable 6 months administrative detention. To demand his freedom Bilal Kayed went on hunger strike. On friday, if he survives, Bilal Kayedwill be on day 52 of his hunger strike. Kayed is imminently vulnerable to cerebral haemorrhage, heart attack or stroke due to the physical strain on his body. Dozens of fellow Palestinian prisoners have joined an open hunger strike and there is an international campaign to demand Bilal Kayedís freedom. Today there are around 750 Palestinians being held indefinitely without charge or trial, with no way to defend themselves, under Israel's illegal use of administrative detention. 127 administrative detention orders were issued in July 2016.

Inminds chair Abbas Ali said "The caging of Bilal Kayed without charge or trial after he has already served his 14.5 year sentence sets a very dangerous precedent for all Palestinian political prisoners and must be vigorously challenged by human rights activists around the world. His imprisonment today represents the imprisonment of all Palestinians tomorrow. We demand his immediate freedom!".

Please join us on Friday 5th August outside the UK Mission of the International Committee of the Red Cross at 44 Moorfields, London EC2Y 9AL (on same street as the back entrance of Moorgate tube station.)

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"The United States is 4.6% of the worlds people but still controls 50% of the worlds wealth and has a military that spends more than every other country in the world combined. I see this moment, as a moment that is very dangerous.. which is to say that the United States is a declining world economic power, similarly a declining political power, but what isn't declining is the military power. As you know from the 20th century that's a dangerous combination - a declining economic and political power but an overwhelmingly dominant military power. I think the national security state that we've seen organised since 9-11 in an unbelievably rapid way, which owes in no small part to Israel I must say, is a particular [example]."